I recently traveled with my family of four to Universal in Orlando, Florida. With a family of four and one day to explore we used a park hopper pass for Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
We went in without a plan, shame on us, which made having an express pass a necessity. This cut the wait time in half for most of the rides.
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Our first stop was at the ride called Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. This ride places your family in the minion world with sound effects, scents, etc. as you are, “transformed,” into a minion and back to a human.
Next up was E.T. Adventure taking you back to the 1980s loved movie, where the kids enjoyed the ride and the adults took in the nostalgia.
Next on our list was to look for a roller coaster that our youngest son could ride (since he is 48 inches tall and too short to ride the larger roller coasters) so we boarded the Hogwarts Express to head to Islands of Adventure.
At Islands of Adventure our first ride was Flight of the Hippogriff, which had virtually no wait with our express passes. Unfortunately, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure was closed for unknown reasons, but this gives us a reason to visit the park another day.
Then we headed to the Jurassic World VelociCoaster, which has a 51-inch height minimum, so mom and oldest son rode this coaster, while dad and youngest headed towards Pteranodon Flyers. Our son said the VelociCoaster, “was crazy but I want to ride it again.”
Next up was Skull Island: Reign of Kong which was 4D and jam packed with constant movement, 3D King Kong coming at us and even some light water making you feel as if you were part of the movie.
Our next thrill ride was The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man which was another 4D experience making us part of the action-packed movie. Following this ride, I tapped out due to motion sickness, but the kids wanted more so that’s what we did!
Then, due to our lack of planning and the Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast being out of service earlier, we headed back to Universal Studios on foot by the entrance. The Minion Blast is an interactive game where you shoot laser guns at villains from the movie and was a huge hit with the kids. Then we hit a few more rides, Transformers, Men in Black, Simpson’s and The Mummy prior to stopping to enjoy the Mardi Gras Parade to end the day.
If I could go back and change anything about our visit, I would highly recommend looking at the interactive maps to figure out what you want to do in order to plan your day so you don’t have to go back and forth. In addition, I would be mindful of height restrictions if you have any small children with you. Thankfully the Express Pass enabled us to enjoy all of the rides we wanted to due to short wait times.
Highly recommend visiting Universal Studios Orlando, we will be back!